Zoots! It’s the sounds of the 60s
Recent winners of the most Outstanding Decade Music-Themed Entertainment Act 2024, The Zoots will be coming back to Arlington Arts on November 8 with their Sounds of the 60s Show. The multi award-winning band have played more than 1,000 shows and toured some 35 countries, performing in theatres, concerts, festivals and events worldwide.
It takes a lot to pull off some 100 shows a year... N2’s BRIAN HARRINGTON speaks to frontman Jamie Goddard who has a soft spot for Newbury’s Arlington Arts
What audiences see when they see The Zoots live is a great, fun show, but of course there is a serious hard working side to their story.
Firstly and most obviously they are seriously talented musicians with a genuine passion for the music they play, beyond that however they are an independent band, which, in this case, means no high-powered management team, no big promoters and publicists, they do it all themselves with Jamie personally booking every show and tour.
Since their formation in 2009 they have played over 1,000 shows and festivals in more than 30 countries to audiences of up to 10,000 and at prestigious venues such as the London Palladium. Despite this the band continues to play small, intimate gigs, which they enjoy just as much.
Averaging more than 100 shows a year The Zoots were, as the saying goes, on a meteoric rise before covid hit, which, Jamie told me caused him to rethink their touring philosophy.
He found himself enjoying getting to know his neighbours in Wiltshire, he told me, and wondering whether playing one off shows hundreds of miles away was really practical. There are some venues however for which he has a real affection.
Eastbourne is one at which they play five or six shows a year, doing their 60s show, their 70s show and 80s show plus Halloween and Christmas specials.
Arlington Arts is another because in 2020 their first live shows as lock down eased were there, playing to 50 per cent capacity audiences (due to ongoing social distance restrictions) all wearing masks. "It must have been awful for the audience," Jamie mused. They played two consecutive nights.
The work rate of the Zoots has only just begun to return to pre-covid levels, but Jamie has enjoyed playing festivals recently in Belgium and Holland as well as events linked to classic car shows a subject he is very knowledgeable on.
He loved playing a show in Havana, Cuba, because of all the vintage American cars, he added.
What next for the Zoots?
Well, Jamie says they are incorporating screens in some shows to provide an atmospheric backdrop through vintage footage etc to augment the visuals of their costumes, retro equipment and actions.
Jamie explained that he once got in to trouble for smashing a guitar during a Who cover because the guitar dented a very expensive stage. He told me that if there is a sheet of wood on stage now it is there to avoid damage".
The Zoots put in a huge amount of work to recreate the atmosphere of the original acts they cover in their shows.
That's what makes them so much fun to watch.
To book visit https://arlington-arts.com
The show features legendary numbers by the best of the ’60s artists including The Beatles, The Searchers, The Monkees, The Small Faces, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Shadows, The Four Seasons, Dusty Springfield, Petula Clark, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Elvis and more.
Feel the groove that’s thrilled audiences of stage and screen, and brought the Swinging Sixties back to more than 30 countries.
